Culling dilemma

Britain plans to kill
as many as
20,000 badgers in
several hot spots
for bovine tuberculosis over the next
four years. But the
move is facing
stiff internal
opposition.
Signatories
to the Bern
Convention on wildlife
protection in Europe
had voted to
@4nvestigate whether
the experimental cull violates
three articles of the
treaty, and to ask
Britain to stop@,the
killings for a year.
However, the cull,
which aims to reveal
whether killing
the badgers reduces
bovine tubercu-
losis, went ahead in
the North Devon
region in December 1998.